House Hold
by thelovelight
Summary: A look at the early years of Fuji Yumiko, Fuji Syuusuke, and Fuji Yuuta. If you squint you'll see the ichinen ZukaFuji . Written for Fuji Syuusuke's actual birthday last year - 29 Feb 2008


**Yumiko**

_Sister, make the blind man see_  
Winter, fourteen years ago  
Chiba, Japan

There was a calm to the house where the Fujis lived, one that had lasted for about ten years. To Yumiko's eyes, it was like a blink. One moment she was the only child and the next, she had two, much younger little brothers. But there was that one moment that existed, even if she hardly could remember it, when she was doted on most. Not that she minded her brothers. They were born almost a decade after her. No need for competition.

The tarot cards in her hands were slight bent in her hands, but that was okay. Fuji Yumiko would end up going through seventeen packs of tarot cards between the ages of six and nine. Half of them would be lost in the sandbox while telling children their fortunes. The other half would become like this one, dog-eared and torn, where the pictures were almost too faded to tell the difference between _Death_ and _The World_.

Her mother had been growing rounder and rounder by her midsection but by the time her parents had decided to tell her what was going on, she claimed to already know.

"The cards don't lie." She had simply said, shuffling the deck in her small hands. "I knew you were having a baby."

She didn't have to say that she had already learned where babies had come from and the signs of having one, even without the health class that her school promised to teach in a few years. Her mother never questioned her abilities and only fostered it by buying a new pack for every one lost.

Yumiko had once questioned whether or not she had the magical gift of seeing the future, but then decided it was unnecessary to know the real answer. It made her unique, to say that she understood the cards in her hands. It made her different from the person down the street or next-door or even the little brother in her mother's womb.

And so, Yumiko foretold the future simply because she believed she could.

Yumiko stood over the crib, her hands wrapped around the bars. When February 29th had rolled around, her parents had brought home the brother they had promised, but she was a little confused. Were all little brothers so…small? It was a little disappointing, to be honest. Though there were some advantages to it, if she thought about it. She grinned a smile that would later be famous within the Fuji family. He could fit into her doll clothes if she tried…

Curiously, she reached out and waved a hand over his face. Small eyes crinkled into a smile and he waved his arms to reach the large hand.

"I'll do readings for you." Yumiko nodded, stroking her brother's head. And she would because it was made her special. But that didn't mean she couldn't share her gift.

***

**Syuusuke**

_Brother, if you need me near_  
Summer, nine years ago  
Chiba, Japan

People would question if Syuusuke was the most 'evil' of the Fuji children. Yuuta would point to Syuusuke. Syuusuke would point to Yumiko. And Yumiko would laugh.

…because it was true. From whom else could Syuusuke have learned it?

Many a summer did Syuusuke find himself running from his big sister, not out of fear so much as out of natural instinct. After a while the doll clothes had become rags, very pretty rags as Yumiko would put it as she chased him. This would only be the precursor to the laps he would later run in his life, though instead of a track it was around the house. Obstacle courses of couches, hard kitchen chairs, around their mother, under the table. It was of little wonder Syuusuke was physically fit at a young age.

He was a quiet child, but only because he preferred smiling more than he preferred speaking. This too would change over time and the two would become somewhat equal in measure. But there was nothing really for Syuusuke to do save watch television or play outside and neither were holding his attention very much. Until he found tennis.

Tennis was an escape from the monotony. It was exciting. And he had been surprisingly very good at it. They had begun to label him something that, as soon as he had heard it, Syuusuke never repeated. Not because it was a nasty word but because he didn't find it necessary. He didn't care if he was good but rather that he could continue playing.

When little Syuusuke had stood over Yuuta's crib, he poked him. And Yuuta cried. And Syuusuke realized that he would love him forever. And he vowed to teach him all the things little boys could do.

"You hold the racket like this…" Three years later, Syuusuke curled Yuuta's hand around the base of the handle, gently crushing his fingers against the tapped grip. In retrospect, Syuusuke would learn that it was never the best idea to play tennis in the house. But it was raining, the hazy summer heat rolling away into humidity.

Syuusuke found the joy in tennis much less because he was good at it and more because Yuuta was wanted to play and that meant he could play against him. Or at least Yuuta seemed to every time he picked up the racket that was probably too big for him and attempted to swing it.

"Again, again!" Yuuta bounced on his toes as Syuusuke bounced the ball.

He smiled warmly and served underhand, as it was the only one he knew how to do at the moment. Unfortunately for Yuuta, he swung and missed, the force of the momentum causing him to spin around wildly before falling down.

"Yuuta!" Syuusuke vaulted over the net of two chairs and Yumiko's old gypsy skirt. He knew that he would get in trouble for it if she caught them, but he was more worried about Yuuta's injury.

Yuuta was more dazed than hurt. He pulled himself back up wobbling slightly and grabbed onto Syuusuke's hands. "Again…"

Syuusuke checked Yuuta over before he nodded and patted him on the head. "Okay."

A few seconds later, a crash echoed around the house and Syuusuke winced. Until he saw that Yuuta had broken one of his trophies, the one he hadn't particularly liked. It was ugly. Syuusuke smiled.

***

**Yuuta**

_Brother, in your doubt and fear_  
Spring, seven years ago  
Chiba, Japan

The old garden behind the Fuji household was Fuji Yoshiko's best-kept treasure, besides her children. Every leaf and flower stretched and flourished in every direction imaginable. Some might believe that there was no organization to her gardening, but she would dissuade them every spring when her garden grew more than anyone else did in the neighborhood.

It was just the inspiration Yuuta needed. For Yuuta had decided that spring that he was going to grow if it took him all year.

And this meant getting someone to help him that knew a good deal about plants, who wasn't busy or wouldn't get him in trouble.

"I need to grow."

Syuusuke looked over his brother for a long moment, who stared back with determination in his eyes. Afterward, he smiled and nodded. "Okay."

"Aren't you going to ask why?"

"Nope."

The two of them plotted and planned what exactly made plants grow: Water, sunshine, some soil, and a little fertilizer. Deciding that Yuuta probably shouldn't eat plant food, they made a few sandwiches and set out to the garden.

Syuusuke had a little watering can with a bumblebee on it that Yuuta hated, since he was scared of bees. But the will to grow overtook even his fear of the insect's picture.

"Don't worry, bees help pollinate flowers." Syuusuke assured him. "But you won't make babies…At least I don't think so…"

That troubled Yuuta, as did his aniki's wide grin right afterward. But once more, his determination overrode that too, despite the odd feeling in his stomach that his brother knew more than he did. Nodding, Yuuta began to munch on a sandwich as Syuusuke began to water him from different angles.

"Is it working?"

"No."

"…well…try harder!"

"Okay."

What had started out as a few sprinkles of water from the watering can quickly became a downpour. Syuusuke showered his brother in as much water as he could, believing that his love equaled every droplet. By the time Yumiko had come into the backyard for a bit of fresh air and sunlight, she was greeted with the sight of Yuuta buried knee deep in mud and Syuusuke running for the garden hose. She had nearly dropped her tarot cards.

The following day, Yoshiko was not surprised to find her youngest running a temperature.

Syuusuke, of course, had felt it was his "love" that had made Yuuta ill in the first place ("It's a love sickness!") and quickly made the decision that he would rectify the situation by being Yuuta's bedside nurse for the whole day.

"What is that?"

"My cactus." Syuusuke had smiled as he placed it on Yuuta's nightstand. Yuuta thought it looked dangerous, but Syuusuke convinced him it wasn't as long as he didn't say anything mean to it. And that made enough sense to the six year old to believe his aniki without question.

"What do you do with a cactus."

"Talk to it." Syuusuke responded gently. "Sometimes, it talks back."

"That's weird."

"You should try it. You won't know if it's really weird unless you do."

And so Yuuta talked to the cactus about his day, about how he wanted to grow and be taller than his brother. And maybe play tennis like him too, as he was getting quite good at that point. As Yuuta spoke, Syuusuke smiled kindly but felt each and every prick of Yuuta's words like to his heart, not unlike the needles of his cactus.

"A cactus grows very tall. It doesn't need a lot of water. All it needs is a little time and someone nice enough to listen." Syuusuke's soft voice carried over the silence the room had taken. Yuuta looked to his brother and for a moment he was extremely happy to know that he was there. But the tension of being sick as well as the emotion in his throat overwhelmed him and, like all little boys and girls his age, he started to cry.

Yuuta would later look at this moment in his life as one of the most insane. Syuusuke would look at this moment as a rare treat to be savored.

***

**Interlude**

"The winds of change are here, Syuusuke."

"So don't get blown over."

"Thank you, Yuuta."

"Syuusuke has a tendency not to fall."

"First time for everything."

"Thank you, Yuuta."

"You should watch out for unforeseen obstacles."

"Which means your cactus is going to become lethal."

"…but it already is, Yuuta."

One part fear, two parts smirk.

***

**Epilogue**

Fall, two years ago  
Tokyo, Japan

It had been a few weeks since the family had moved from their home in Chiba and while they had mostly unpacked, a few boxes still lined the halls or sat in the more obscure places. Yumiko, for example, had chosen to sit on one of them wedge between the couch and the window, as she shuffled her cards and called a friend on her cellphone.

Their parents had transferred the younger two Fujis' school records to the local public schools. For Yuuta, the elementary a couple of blocks away from the house allowed Syuusuke to walk him before taking the bus to his junior high, Seishun Gakuen.

A knock near the base of the door had caused Yuuta to nearly trip down the stairs from running so quickly in his socks in an attempt to open it. But Syuusuke, who had been waiting next to it for the past ten minutes, got there first, which was odd in itself. Neither of them had been expecting visitors. But there were stranger sights.

Like how Yumiko had looked up from her tarot cards to see the curious look cross Yuuta's face and Yuuta had seen the faint traces of a blush on Syuusuke's cheeks as he turned the doorknob.

A young boy greeted him, only a little taller than Syuusuke and Yuuta, but definitely shorter than Yumiko. From behind spectacles, he blinked away the slight frown that had crossed his face, which was just losing the roundness of youth. And from what he could see from the white-framed wooden doorway was the boy he had met at school:

_Fuji_

"Can I come in?"

* * *

**A/N:** Hey guys~ Yeesh, it's been a year since I looked at this. Some mistakes I didn't notice last time ^^;;

The first reviewer of this story had some questions I wanted to clear up. Other than my grammatical error (fixing that now, thanks!)

House Hold is two words because I wanted to emphasize the 'house' = home and the 'hold' = bonds/connections like family. It was a conscious decision to split them up.

Secondly, the Interlude is just before they leave for Tokyo. It's just a moment in time/random conversation.

Hope you all enjoy it~


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